text:
SILVER SPRING, Md. -- An FDA advisory committee has voted 9-6 against recommending approval for the novel diabetes drug dapagliflozin. The panel has concerns about potential breast and bladder cancer risks and wants more data.
The FDA's Endocrinologic and Metabolic Advisory Committee voted Tuesday against endorsing the first-of-its-kind drug as an adjunct to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Dapagliflozin is an inhibitor of sodium glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) which works by increasing renal glucose elimination, allowing more sugar to be excreted with urine rather than being absorbed into the bloodstream.
The committee members all praised Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca for developing such an innovative drug that doesn't attempt to regulate insulin in the body like other diabetes treatments, but just simply flushes glucose from the body.
"To a hepatologist, it seems brilliant in its simplicity," said panelist Doris Strader, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Vermont.
Another bonus of the dapagliflozin: Unlike drugs that work by regulating insulin, which can cause weight gain, patients on dapagliflozin actually lost a little weight: Between an average of 2.4 lbs and 3.7 lbs, depending on the dose. (Meanwhile, patients in the control arm of the Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca trials gained a few pounds).
In an FDA review of six of Bristol-Myers Squibb and AstraZeneca's 11 phase III clinical trials, dapagliflozin plus metformin-treated patients achieved superior glycemic control compared with patients treated with metformin plus placebo.
The efficacy of dapagliflozin is related to glucose clearance in the kidneys, so in patients with renal impairment, the drug works less well. In a study of patients with moderate renal impairment, the drug was not found to work. The companies are recommending that dapagliflozin not be used in patients with moderate to severe renal impairment.
But the apparent efficacy of a brand new type of diabetes drug was not good enough for the panel, in light of the potential of dapagliflozin to cause breast and bladder cancers.
Across the companies' 11 clinical trials, there have been nine bladder cancers in 5,478 patients on the drug compared with one case in 3,156 controls; and there have also been nine cases of breast cancer in 2,223 women on the drug compared with just one in 1,053 female controls.
An FDA reviewer estimated that women taking dapagliflozin had a fourfold increased risk of developing breast cancer compared with those not taking the drug, and male diabetics had five times the risk for developing bladder cancer compared with the control group.
"Rates of both bladder and breast cancer are higher than what would be expected," said FDA reviewer Somya Dunn, MD, who added that the clinical trial program wasn't powered to distinguish a clinically meaningful difference in the incidence of breast or bladder cancer in the dapagliflozin arms versus the control arms.
Panelists also were concerned about one case of liver damage that was thought to be caused by dapagliflozin.
Dunn, who said, "It is difficult to make this estimate based off one case," nonetheless estimated that one in 25,000 patients exposed to dapagliflozin for at least six months would develop serious liver injury.
While the panelists said they realized the difficulty of pinpointing liver damage to a specific drug, they were worried about the potential for liver damage if dapagliflozin were to be approved, especially since it would likely be used in millions of people.
Several panelists who voted that the drug should be approved said that more breast cancers may have been detected in the dapagliflozin groups because they lost weight, making it easier to detect tumors with a mammogram. Likewise, bladder cancers may have been detected at a higher rate because dapagliflozin-treated patients were more likely to develop urinary tract infections, leading them to seek medical treatment during which the bladder cancer may have been spotted.
Because the drug causes patients to excrete more sugar, genital and bladder infections are also a side effect. Another FDA reviewer estimated that there would be one additional genital tract infection for every 24 patients treated with dapagliflozin.
Panel chairman Abraham Thomas, MD, MPH, head of endocrinology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, voted in favor of the drug, arguing that it would be unreasonable for a drug company to conduct a large enough study to rule out a cancer risk. Thomas and several other panelists said the cancer risk should be studied in post-approval trials.
But Strader said she couldn't dismiss the breast and bladder cancers as "minor," and didn't want to wait until after approval to try to enroll enough patients to test whether the drug does have a link to breast and bladder cancers.
"I was concerned about the five-fold increase and the inability to explain why this happened," she said. "I know it's very hard to get these [enrollment] numbers in a pre-clinical trial but I feel very uncomfortable subjecting the diabetic population to a potentially life-threatening risk just to get more numbers."
The FDA does not have to follow the advice of its advisory committees, but it often does.


text:
Completing Access Control support for XDomainRequest
Back in October, Sunava described changes that we made to the XDomainRequest (XDR) object in IE8 between the Beta 1 and Beta 2 releases. This object allows your AJAX web pages to request data from sites with a different hostname from the page itself, something that IE doesn't allow for security reasons via XMLHttpRequest. Since Beta 1 we've been working with the W3C Web Application group on the Access Control framework and the changes we made in Beta 2 were to adopt the Simple Cross-Site Access Request.
I'm happy to announce that we have recently completed our support for the Access Control Check using the Access-Control-Allow-Origin header defined by the updated spec. This means that, in addition to the wildcard check (looking for *) that we supported in Beta 2, we also now support the origin URL check. This support will be part of the next public release of IE that Dean announced a few weeks ago.
I have recorded a short video that demonstrates how to use XDR and what this announcement means. It also shows how the Access Control framework is supported by other browsers allowing interoperable services to be called from your pages.
—Adrian Bateman, Program Manager, Internet Explorer

subset: commoncrawl


text:
(NNPA) — Actor, playwright, and film mogul Tyler Perry, who had a massive fire at his Atlanta-based mega-million-dollar studio last year, is now reportedly suing the producers of his sitcom "For Better Or Worse" for $1.8 million, accusing them of negligence, according to TMZ.
The lawsuit reportedly claims that the blaze broke out due to a white hot light that was placed too close to a backlot facade on the show's set. Perry is claiming that the lighting professionals should have been more knowledgeable and competent.
Last year after the fire was thoroughly investigated, though, Atlanta's Fire Chief Kelvin J. Cochrandetermined that the damage was so extensive that the source of the blaze could not be found. "The intensity of the fire in the area of origin consumed any evidence that would lead to a cause of ignition," Cochran stated according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The four-alarm fire reportedly damaged the exterior but not the interior of the building that stood in the 30-acre, 5-year-old complex's center. The building's interior did have some water damage, but that was the result of firefighting efforts. More than 100 firefighters responded to put out the blaze, and they managed to contain the fire to one building. There were no reported injuries.
The impending lawsuit's dollar amount will reportedly cover the total damage to the studio.


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In December 2010, China Education Publishing & Media Group (China Education) was formed as a strategic merger to reshape educational publishing. The company includes five subsidiaries: Higher Education Press (HEP), PEP (Peoples's Education Press), LCP (Language & Culture Press), CEPIEC (China Educational Publication Import & Export Corporation) and China Educational Instrument & Equipment Corp. Combined, those groups account for revenues of 2.8 billion RMB. According to Li Pengyi, General manager of the new group, its focus is on the rapid development and international dimension in Chinese educational publishing, improving the group's stock listing, and developing digital strategies.
With an annual output of 20,000 publications including books, audio, and digital, China Education claims to be the market leader in China's publishing industry and is currently preparing for its IPO.
Key Company Developments in 2012
Even as detailed breakdown figures may not be comparable and consistent, the overall development of China Education shows significant growth and international expansion.
However, an earlier announced IPO has not taken place at this point.
Ownership, Mergers & Acquisition, Internal Organization:
China Education was formed with the goal of establishing a Chinese global player in the educational publishing market.
International partners of China Education include Pearson, Cengage Learning, McGrawHill Education, Wiley, Wolters Cluwer, Cambridge University Press, and Springer.
Higher Education Press announced a cooperation agreement with the Dutch journal publisher Brill.
In 2011, the company extended cooperation with the Thai Ministry of Education.
In 2010, HEP sold 179 titles to publishers in Europe and the Americas, making it the number one copyright exporter in China.
Bestselling Authors & Titles:
Key Points for Analysis & Conclusions:
Earlier Developments:
Higher Education Press (HEP), the largest publisher of educational books in China, was founded in 1954. The company has a major focus on publishing university textbooks on Science and Engineering.
Over the past two decades, HEP has broaded in scope from college textbooks to all-level books for postgraduate education, vocational education, continuing education, and online education, and covers topics including science, engineering, humanity and the arts, social sciences, education, economics, and management.
Higher Education Press also develops audio-visual, electronic products and on-line teaching materials.
Higher Education Press has published over 30,000 titles, currently around 4,500 annually, including 1,500 new titles with 65 million books produced per year.
HEP's Academic Journals Division entered a partnership with Springer in 2006 to jointly publish 36 journals, which will be accessible online through SpringerLink as the Chinese Library of Science. Other collaborations have been established with McGraw-Hill Education and Cambridge University Press.
Educational materials from HEP have been adopted by the educational system in Thailand.
Click here to return to the full listing of the world's largest publishers.


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Isn't she lovely? The AmaBella is a stunning river ship, unique in her own right. A classic design palette of black and white in the Main Lounge allows your conversations to provide the color. The intimate marbled bar is an inviting place to grab a cocktail and the Sun Deck putting green, featured only on select AmaWaterways ships, lures both regular golfers and newcomers alike. Most staterooms feature our signature twin balconies so you can enjoy the views however you wish, as well as Entertainment-On-Demand and marble bathrooms with multi-jet showerheads. Suites feature added enhancements, including a larger sitting area and an expansive bathroom complete with a bathtub and separate shower. You'll also find a massage and hair salon on board, as well as a fitness room, specialty coffee station and gift shop. Mealtimes are a feast for the senses in the Main Restaurant and at The Chef's Table.
- Ship Facts
- Launched - 2010
- Registry - Switzerland
- Passengers - 161
- Crew - 51
- Crew Nationality - European
- Length - 443 feet
- Width - 38 feet


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Actor Sean Penn, who is helping manage a camp of displaced earthquake victims in Haiti, is making pointed criticisms of journalists for dropping the ball on coverage of Haiti. He's wrong. I've been on the ground in Port-au-Prince working as an independent journalist for the past ten months. I'm an earthquake survivor who's seen the big-time reporters come and go. They're doing such a stellar job and I want to help out, so I've written this handy guide for when they come back on the one-year anniversary of the January quake!
For starters, always use the phrase 'the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.' Your audience must be reminded again of Haiti's exceptional poverty. It's doubtful that other articles have mentioned this fact.
You are struck by the 'resilience' of the Haitian people. They will survive no matter how poor they are. They are stoic, they rarely complain, and so they are admirable. The best poor person is one who suffers quietly. A two-sentence quote about their misery fitting neatly into your story is all that's needed.
On your last visit you became enchanted with Haiti. You are in love with its colorful culture and feel compelled to return. You care so much about these hard-working people. You are here to help them. You are their voice. They cannot speak for themselves.
Don't listen if the Haitians speak loudly or become unruly. You might be in danger, get out of there. Protests are not to be taken seriously. The participants were probably all paid to be there. All Haitian politicians are corrupt or incompetent. Find a foreign authority on Haiti to talk in stern terms about how they must shape up or cede power to incorruptible outsiders.
The US Embassy and United Nations always issue warnings that demonstrations are security threats. It is all social unrest. If protesters are beaten, gassed, or shot at by UN peacekeepers, they probably deserved it for getting out of control. Do not investigate their constant claims of being abused.
It was so violent right after the January 2010 earthquake. 'Looters' fought over goods 'stolen' from collapsed stores. Escaped prisoners were causing mayhem. It wasn't necessary to be clear about how many people were actually hurt or died in fighting. The point is that it was scary.
Now many of those looters are 'squatters' in 'squalid' camps. Their tent cities are 'teeming' with people, like anthills. You saw your colleagues use these words over and over in their reports, so you should too. You do not have time to check a thesaurus before deadline.
Point out that Port-au-Prince is overcrowded. Do not mention large empty plots of green land around the city. Of course, it is not possible to explain that occupying US Marines forcibly initiated Haiti's shift from distributed, rural growth to centralized governance in the capital city. It will not fit within your word count. Besides, it is ancient history.
If you must mention Haiti's history, refer vaguely to Haiti's long line of power-hungry, corrupt rulers. The 'iron-fisted' Duvaliers, for example. Don't mention 35 years of US support for that dictatorship. The slave revolt on which Haiti was founded was 'bloody' and 'brutal.' These words do not apply to modern American offensives in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Today, Cite Soleil is the most dangerous slum in the world. There is no need to back up this claim with evidence. It is 'sprawling.' Again, there's no time for the thesaurus. Talk about ruthless gangs, bullet holes, pigs and trash. Filth everywhere. Desperate people are eating cookies made of dirt and mud! That always grabs the reader's attention.
Stick close to your hired security or embed yourself with UN troops. You can't walk out on your own to profile generous, regular folk living in tight-knit neighborhoods. They are helpless victims, grabbing whatever aid they can. You haven't seen them calmly dividing food amongst themselves, even though it's common practice.
Better to report on groups that periodically enter from outside to deliver food to starving kids (take photos!). Don't talk to the youth of Cite Soleil about how proud they are of where they come from. Probably gang members. Almost everyone here supports ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. But their views aren't relevant. There is no need to bring politics into your story.
You can't forget to do another story about restaveks. Child slaves. It's so shocking. There is little new information about restaveks, so just recycle old statistics. Present it as a uniquely Haitian phenomenon. Enslaved Haitian farmworkers in southern Florida, for example, aren't nearly as interesting.
When you come back here in six months, there will still be a lot of desperate poor people who have received little to no help. There are many big, inefficient foreign NGOs in Haiti. Clearly something is wrong. Breathless outrage is the appropriate tone.
But do not try to get to the bottom of the issue. Be sure to mention that aid workers are doing the best they can. Their positive intentions matter more than the results. Don't name names of individuals or groups who are performing poorly. Reports about food stocks sitting idly in individual warehouses are good. Investigations into why NGOs are failing to effect progress in Haiti are boring and too difficult. Do not explore Haitian-led alternatives to foreign development schemes. There are none. Basically, don't do any reporting that could change the system.
On the other hand, everyone here loves Bill Clinton and Wyclef Jean. There are no dissenting views on this point. Never mind that neither lives here. Never mind that Clinton admitted to destroying Haiti's domestic rice economy in the '90s. Never mind that Jean's organization has repeatedly mismanaged relief funds. That's all in the past. They represent Haiti's best hope for the future. Their voices matter, which means the media must pay close attention to them, which means their voices matter, which means the media must …
Finally, when you visit Haiti again: Stay in the same expensive hotels. Don't live close to the people. Produce lots of stories and make money. Pull up in your rented SUV to a camp of people who lost their homes, still living under the wind and rain. Step out into the mud with your waterproof boots. Fresh notepad in hand. That ragged-looking woman is yelling at you that she needs help, not another foreigner taking her photo. Her 3-year-old boy is standing there, clinging to her leg. Her arms are raised, mouth agape, and you can't understand her because you don't speak Haitian Creole.
Remove the lens cap and snap away. And when you've captured enough of Haiti's drama, fly away back home.


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Deer Season for Young Hunters Opens Sept. 20 in North Dakota
Friday, Sept. 20 at noon signals the start of a nine-and-a-half day deer hunting season for youth ages 12-15.
Licensed residents ages 12 and 13, and 11-year-olds who turn age 12 in 2013, are allowed to hunt statewide, but only for antlerless white-tailed deer. Resident deer gun hunters age 14 or 15, and 13-year-olds who turn age 14 in 2013, with a "youth season" license, can hunt statewide for any deer, except antlerless mule deer in units 3B1, 3B2, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E and 4F. In addition, a special license is required to hunt antlered mule deer in those same units.
After opening day, hunting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset. Solid daylight fluorescent orange vests or coats, and hats are required for all young hunters and their adult mentors.
Each youth deer hunter must be under direct supervision of an adult while in the field.
In addition to the deer license, hunters must possess a general game and habitat license and hunting certificate.
The youth deer season closes Sunday, Sept. 29.


text: The Venturi series of rods delivers on-the-water performance and style in a balanced, lightweight design. Construction starts with a 30 Ton high modules graphite blank that is paired up with stainless steel guides. Full cork handle ensure comfort and durability. The Venturi series gives excellent performance at a great value.


text:
The map below is a clickable reference to the counties in . Just click on the area of the map where you'd like to find a farmer's market, farm stand, roadside market or garden market! Just press the BACK key to return to the previous page or use the quick links at left!
Click on the map to return to the list of pick your own farms in alphabetical county order.
Do you know of any more farmer's markets, farm stands, etc. in ? Please tell me about them - Click here to write to me!


text:
The NDK supports ARM Advanced SIMD, commonly known as Neon, an optional instruction set extension for ARMv7 and ARMv8. Neon provides scalar/vector instructions and registers (shared with the FPU) comparable to MMX/SSE/3DNow! in the x86 world.
Almost all ARMv7-based Android devices support Neon, including all devices that shipped with API level 21 or later. The NDK enables Neon by default.
All ARMv8-based Android devices support Neon.
The NDK supports the compilation of modules or even specific source files with support for Neon. You can use Neon intrinsics in C and C++ code to take advantage of the Advanced SIMD extension. The Neon Programmer's Guide for Armv8-A provides more information about Neon intrinsics and Neon programming in general.
Enable Neon globally
ndk-build does not support enabling Neon globally. To enable Neon an entire ndk-build application, apply the per-module steps to every module in your application.
Pass -DANDROID_ARM_NEON=ON
when invoking CMake. If building with Android
Studio/Gradle, set the following option in your build.gradle:
android {
defaultConfig {
externalNativeBuild {
cmake {
arguments "-DANDROID_ARM_NEON=ON"
Enable Neon per module
To build all the source files in an ndk-build module with NEON, add the following to the module definition in your Android.mk:
LOCAL_ARM_NEON := true
To build all the source files in a CMake target with NEON, add the following to your CMakeLists.txt:
if(ANDROID_ABI STREQUAL armeabi-v7a)
set_target_properties(${TARGET} PROPERTIES COMPILE_FLAGS -mfpu=neon)
Where ${TARGET}
is replaced with the name of your library.
It can be especially useful to build all source files with Neon support if you want to build a static or shared library that specifically contains Neon-only code.
Enable Neon per source file
When listing source files for your LOCAL_SRC_FILES
variable, you have the
option of using the .neon
suffix to indicate that you want to build
individual files with Neon support. For example, the following builds one
file (foo.c
) with Neon support and another (bar.c
) without:
LOCAL_SRC_FILES := foo.c.neon bar.c
You can combine the .neon
suffix with the .arm
suffix, which specifies
the 32-bit ARM instruction set (instead of Thumb2) for non-Neon instructions.
In such a case, .arm
must come before .neon
. For example: foo.c.arm.neon
works, but foo.c.neon.arm
does not.
To build a specific source file with Neon, add the following to your CMakeLists.txt:
if(ANDROID_ABI STREQUAL armeabi-v7a)
set_source_files_properties(foo.cpp PROPERTIES COMPILE_FLAGS -mfpu=neon)
Runtime detection
Almost all ARMv7-based Android devices support Neon, including all devices that shipped with API level 21 or later. The NDK enables Neon by default. For maximum compatibility, 32-bit code can perform runtime detection to confirm that Neon code can be run on the target device. The app can perform this check using any of the options mentioned in CPU features.
As an alternative, it's possible to filter out incompatible devices on the Google Play Console. You can also use the console to see how many devices this would affect.
Cross-platform support for x86
NDK supports cross-platform compilation of your existing ARM SIMD (Neon) instrinsic functions into x86 SSE code, through the use of the third-party NEON_2_SSE.h. For more information on this topic, see From ARM NEON to Intel SSE-the automatic porting solution, tips and tricks.
Sample code
The hello-neon sample
provides an example of how to use the cpufeatures
library and Neon intrinsics
at the same time. This sample implements a tiny benchmark for a FIR filter loop
with a C version and a Neon-optimized version for devices that support Neon.


text:
Manage from your calendar, not from your task list
| productivityWhile reading other blogs, I came across this nugget: Manage your
life from the calendar, not the to-do list. Sally McGhee, author
of "Take Back Your Life!" (one of the few Microsoft Press books on my
bookshelf), has some pretty good ideas there.
What does managing from the calendar mean? Well, I've got a large and
growing task list, just as everyone does. But I have to think about
that task list in terms of _my_ priorities and in terms of _my_ time.
I have just the same amount of time as everyone else does, and I can't
add to it. So one of my most important tasks is to choose which tasks
I want to spend time on, and that depends on the kind of person I want
to become. What tasks do you spend your time on?
Something to think about while you check out the rest of the great interview post on Matt's Idea Blog.


text:
Detropia wins two prizes at the New York ceremony; Bully wins audience award.
Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi's 5 Broken Cameras, a personal portrait years of turmoil in a Palestinian village, won the Outstanding Feature prize at the sixth-annual Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking in New York on Wednesday night.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia won two awards: Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Original Score for Dial.81.
"Tonight, we're here to honor The War Room," said Michael Moore upon presenting the film with the Legacy Award. "No Presidential candidate since, winner or loser, has allowed a documentary filmmaker inside. The War Room really stands as the seminal film and perhaps the last of its kind, reaching outside the documentary audience to new viewers."
"When you have a film that's honored like this after 20 years, it's like a grandfather who's suddenly sobered up and you can talk to him," said D A Pennebaker of the 1983 film. "You sort of forget when you were doing it, nobody wanted it. We were saved by people who just appeared as if by magic," speaking of the film's producers Wendy Ettinger and son Frazer Pennebaker, as well as the film's distributor, the late Bingham Ray.
Lee Hirsch's Bully received the Cinema Eye Audience Choice Prize after a frenzied final 48 hours of voting that saw more than 4,500 cast votes online and via twitter. "This is a great honor for us. A few years ago, we were really struggling with our film, and we came here, and you gave us a lot of strength," said Hirsch. "This film has had a really tremendous outreach campaign. The work done to get this film out there and bring it to audiences, that's really everything. We've been able to bring the film to over 250,000 kids across America."
The Cinema Eye Honor were founded in 2007 to recognize "excellence in artistry and craft in nonfiction filmmaking." The event's core team includes documentary experts Esther Robinson, AJ Schnack, Nathan Truesdell, Sean Farnel, Andrea Meditch and Laura Poitras.
The winners were:
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Produced by Christine Camdessus, Serge Gordey, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Audience Choice Prize
Directed by Lee Hirsch
Outstanding Achievement in Production
Dimitri Doganis
The Imposter
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
T. Woody Richman and Tyler H. Walk
How to Survive a Plague
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Jeff Orlowski
Chasing Ice
Spotlight Award
Argentinian Lesson
Directed by Wojciech Staron
Heterodox Award
Museum Hours
Directed by Jem Cohen
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
Goodbye Mandima (Kwa Heri Mandima)
Directed by Robert-Jan Lacombe
Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Animation
Oskar Gullstrand and Arvid Steen
Searching for Sugar Man
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims
Only the Young
Legacy Award
The War Room
Directed by Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker
Produced by R.J. Cutler, Wendy Ettinger and Frazer Pennebaker


text:
Feb. 13, 2013. Appalachian State University football announced on Tuesday that dates are set for a number of gridiron events this spring.
While the Mountaineers have been working diligently in the weight room since the spring semester began last month, Appalachian State unofficially opened preparations for the spring on Monday night when it began its annual winter conditioning program. In addition to the traditional focus on speed and endurance, this year's winter conditioning also puts a premium on competition with units battling in various intrasquad events.
The winter conditioning program is followed by the always anticipated spring-practice season, which will run from March 22-April 20 this year. Included in the 15 practice dates allowed by the NCAA will be an open practice to be held in Charlotte on Saturday, April 13 and a spring game to be held on Saturday, April 20 at Kidd Brewer Stadium. Details for both the Charlotte practice (location TBA) and spring game will be announced as details are finalized.
The Mountaineers' 2012 Southern Conference championship banquet is scheduled for Saturday, March 23 at the Holmes Center. Details for the celebration of Appalachian's seventh SoCon title in eight years are also being finalized.
Finally, head coach Scott Satterfield and his staff will hold a clinic for high-school coaches on April 5-6 at the Appalachian Athletics Center and Kidd Brewer Stadium. Registration info will be available at GoASU.com in coming days.
Appalachian State's 12-game 2013 schedule is nearing completion and will also be announced in the very near future. The 2013 slate is expected to include six home games and six road dates, beginning with the much-anticipated conclusion of a home-and-home series versus Montana on Aug. 31 in Missoula, Mont. The home opener is anticipated to be played on either Sept. 7 or 14 at Kidd Brewer Stadium.
(details for all events coming soon)
March 22-April 20 — Spring Practice
Saturday, March 23 — 2012 Southern Conference championship banquet (Holmes Center)
Friday-Saturday, April 5-6 — High School Coaches Clinic (Appalachian Athletics Center/Kidd Brewer Stadium)
Saturday, April 13 — Open Practice – Charlotte, N.C. (location TBA)
Saturday, April 20 — Spring Game (Kidd Brewer Stadium)


text:
Download Interview_with_Mimi_Jones.mp3
This week I recorded a Skype chat with Mimi Jones, a French teacher from Cameron High School in Missouri about her use of free phonecasting tool iPadio during her recent transatlantic trip to London, Paris and Barcelona. Throughout the ten day tour, the young people she was escorting regularly used her mobile phone to send instant podcasts known as 'phlogs' to the same online account allowing their parents and friends to share in the experience.
I heard about Mimi's experiment thanks to this post by Sam Culshaw-Robinson, an ICT TA at Nottingham High School and was impressed that it had featured on the iPadio blog no less! Having phlogged myself on last year's Nodehill educational visit to Brittany, I was interested to find out more and so contacted Mimi who I follow on Twitter to request we record a conversation which I could subsequently publish here. I was delighted when she accepted my offer and you can hear the results above.
With Mimi's permission, I am also publishing a compilation of all the phlogs she and her students sent during the trip as well as the pictures they took while they were away.
Download Phlog_compilation.mp3
It was fantastic to be able to find out from Mimi herself how she used technology to enhance her students' experience, allow them to express themselves and keep parents in the loop at the same time. It was also lovely to hear how influential the MFL Twitterati has been on Mimi's practice in the last year! Take a bow @josepicardo and @icpjones!
Listening back to the phlogs, it is clear that her students thoroughly enjoyed travelling across Europe and reflecting on many cultural differences they found interesting along the way. I hope you enjoy hearing their accounts too. You could also have a look at the latest newsletter from the Foreign Language Association of Missouri which includes a report of the trip too and this interview.
As I mentioned to Mimi in our interview, it seems to me that to take this type of moblogging to the next level, it would be a good idea to combine the power of iPadio with Twitter and a Posterous blog. This would allow you to cross-post any phlogs or tweets to the same place automatically as well as give you the option of uploading video or images via email if you could get access to free wifi en route or have a suitable data package set up.
Check out iPadio's YouTube channel for some useful guides on how to do this as well as overviews of Posterous such as this one or this one. Posterous has recently introduced comment moderation on their blogs too making the service arguably ideal for educational moblogging. You can also moderate your phlogs as well if you wish before publishing them live on the internet.
Watch this great presentation by Kevin McLaughlin from TeachMeet Milton Keynes to see how he used Posterous for a week with his primary class.
For more ideas on how to get started with moblogging, have a look at this presentation by Chris Fuller which should get you quickly on the road!
Other language teachers have recently been moblogging too. Valerie McIntyre used Posterous for her trip to Strasbourg this month and Rachel Hawkes created one for her visit to Spain in April. For further examples of MFL moblogs have a look at this post about the hows and whys of podcasting which you should find interesting. Finally, Suzi Bewell has been pioneering the use of iPadio in promoting speaking skills and improving pronunciation in the classroom. Go Suzi!
I hope this post has given you some ideas on how you could use iPadio and phlogging in and out of your own classroom and why this would be a worthwhile thing to do. Happy phlogging guys!


text:
I'd like to dedicate the Scott section of the Victorian Web to an inspiring teacher and Scott devotee, Professor Roger Bishop of the University of Victoria, for it was he that lured me into the study of the nineteenth-century novel and inspired me to read many of Scott's novels. — Philip V. Allingham
Biographical Materials
Literary Relations
- Why Did The Victorians Love Sir Walter Scott's writings?
- Sources, Influences, Confluences
- Scott and Drama (including adaptations of his work)
Theme and context
Artistic Relations
- Sir Walter Scott's Influence on the Gothic Revival
- Scott and Book Illustration
- Scott's Works as Subject for Painting and Sculpture
- Scott's Influence on British Architecture — the Scottish Baronial Style
- Scott's Abbotford
- Henry Seaver's Belfast Scottish Temperance Building
Cultural Contexts
Bibliography and Related Web Resources
- Walter Scott Digital Archive (Edinburgh University Library)
- The Edinburgh Sir Walter Scott Club
Last modified 6 January 2014


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Wolfenstein Cheat Codes: ------------ Update by: gh0stSurf3r Submitted by: crosmaker Find the "wolf.cfg" file for (Vista) in Folder: "C:\Users\name\AppData\Local\id Software\ WolfSP\base" and make a copy of it named "autoexec.cfg". Use a text editor to edit the "autoexec.cfg" file and add the following lines. seta g_cheatsAreOn "1" bind g "god" In this example, the God mode cheat is now bound to the "g" key. Bind any of the following codes similarly in the file, then press the assigned key during game play to activate the cheat function. Result Code -------------------------------------------------------- God mode - god All intel - giveAllIntel All veil powers - givePowers Get gold - giveGold[Number] All power upgrades - giveALLPowerUpgrades Ignored by enemies - notarget Shroud ammo - give ammo_shroud Tesla ammo - give ammo_tesla Panzer ammo - give ammo_panzer Mauser ammo - give ammo_mauser MP43 ammo - give ammo_mp43 MDL24 ammo - give ammo_mdl24 Particle cannon ammo - give ammo_particle_cannon MP40 ammo - give ammo_mp40 Add ammo for your current weapon - give ammo_default Add ammo for component - give ammocomponent Add money (to $31,337 - momoney Unlock Objectives - giveObjectives Unlock Achievements - giveAchievement Unknown - novis Enable Flammenwerfer in level 1 - seta g_unlockedFlameDLC 1 Spawn item or character - spawn [name] Set Blazkowicz's running speed - seta pm_runspeed [number] Unlimited sprinting - seta g_infiniteStamina [0 or 1] Set Blazkowicz's vertical jump height - seta pm_jumpheight [number] (Note:(default is "50") Toggle head while Blazkowicz sprints - g_noviewbob [0 or 1] Note: In Windows XP the in-game console must be enabled by using a text editor to create file named "Autoexec.cfg" in the "\Program Files\Activision\Wolfenstein\SP\Base" folder (or wherever the game has been installed). Add the following string to this file: set com_allowConsole "1" Save the file, exit, then start the game. Once in the game, hold [Right Alt] + [Left Alt] then tap the ~ to display the console window. Enter one of the following codes to activate the cheat function. Tap ~ again to exit the console. Wolfenstein (2009) Cheat menu: ------------------------------ Find the "wolf.cfg" file for (Vista) in Folder: "C:\Users\name\AppData\Local\id Software\WolfSP\base" and make a copy of it named "autoexec.cfg". Use a text editor to edit the "autoexec.cfg" file and add the following lines. seta g_showCheatMenuMsg "1" seta g_gameFinished "1" Start a new campaign and you can now access the "Cheat" menu through the "Gameplay Options" screen. Note: When cheats are enabled, enemies will have pumpkin heads. Cheats: ------- Beat the game on any difficulty to unlock the following cheats. Using these will disable Achievements and Trophies. Access the Cheat Menu by pressing "ESC" -> Options -> Game options -> Cheat Menu. * Pumpkin Heads (Turn enemy heads into orange squashes) * Unlock All Weapons * Unlock All Veil Powers * Infinite Money Boss Tips: ---------- Here are some tips for beating the final boss: * For the first part, use Empower to get through his shield. Use explosives -- the Panzer Rocket Launcher and the Veil Blue Rocket Launcher. * For the second part you can use either the Slow Motion or Empower once again to beat him. * For the third part, dont run up the ramp. Snipe him with a Sniper Rifle or Rocket Launcher. Go slowly. Once you get to the part where you need to climb up stairs, get a weapon ready to kill large amounts of those things on 4 legs (they call 'em Sniffers). There are 4 waves of them. Afterward, simply shoot him until he falls. * For the fourth part, simply shoot him since at this point he will have no power ups. Use the explosives to end him quickly. Achievements Made Easy: ----------------------- -=Buster (Destroy 1000 objects)= Just before doing the airfield mission you move forward with a man from the resistance. At one point there is an area with unlimited panzer rockets that respawn you can use these to destroy nearby objects and just change zones and go back to respawn all objects. -=Rampage (Kill 200 enemies with Empower)=- Same place, just use empower and shoot enemies with the panzer, change zones and go back to respawn them. -=Honorary Geist (Spend two hours in the Veil in single player)=- Leave your Veil sight on and stand in a Veil portal thing, then just leave it for 2 hours. -=Time Out (Use the Mire power for more than an hour in a single player)=- Stand in a Veil portal and turn on Mire, when your Veil power runs out, let it fill up and repeat (you can tell when your Veil power has run out using Mire because your controller will stop vibrating, this allows you to do something else while you keep turning the Mire power on). Item names: ----------- Use one of the following entries with the "spawn" code. ammo_flame (Flammenwerfer ammo) ammo_lf44 (Leichenfaust 44 cannon ammo) ammo_mauser (Mauser ammo) ammo_mdl24 (MDL24 ammo) ammo_mp40 (MP40 ammo) ammo_mp43 (MP43 ammo) ammo_panzer (Panzer ammo) ammo_particle_cannon (Particle cannon ammo) ammo_shroud (Shroud ammo) ammo_tesla (Tesla ammo) weapon_flammenwerfer (flamethrower) weapon_grenade (MDL.24 grenade) weapon_lf44 (Leichenfaust 44 cannon) weapon_mauser98 (Kar98 bolt-action rifle) weapon_mp40 weapon_mp43 weapon_panzerschreck (rocket launcher) weapon_plasma_cannon (particle cannon) Note: Certain ammo summoning codes work inconsistently, particularly the following: ammo_panzer, ammo_flame, and ammo_shroud. Sometimes the aforementioned item spawns, but on some maps a messages in the console window like the following text. When this occurs, simply spawn the weapon in question and that will also provide ammunition. spawned entity 'idItem_ammo_shroud_1309' spawned entity 'idItem_ammo_flame_281' spawned entity 'idItem_ammo_panzer_288' Character names: ---------------- Use one of the following entries with the spawn code. Note: Spawning a character that is not normally present on the current map may crash the game. Effect Name ---------------------------------------------------------------- Blonde Elite Guard with a dagger - spawn enemies_elite_guard Brunette Elite Guard with a whip - spawn enemies_elite_guard_02 Flamethrower Trooper - spawn enemies_ak_flame_trooper Friendly Kreisau soldier with an MP40 SMG - spawn allies_kreisau_soldier_01 Green Despoiled - spawn enemies_despoiled_green Heavy Trooper - spawn enemies_ak_heavy_trooper Red Despoiled - spawn enemies_despoiled_red Rocket Trooper with a jetpack - spawn enemies_ak_rocket_trooper Scribe - spawn enemies_scribe Sniffer - spawn enemies_sniffer Wehrmacht officer with an MP40 SMG - spawn enemies_wehrmacht_officer Wehrmacht sniper with a sniper rifle - spawn enemies_wehrmacht_sniper Wehrmacht soldier with a Kar98 rifle - spawn enemies_wehrmacht_infantry Wehrmacht soldier with an MP40 smg - spawn enemies_wehrmacht_infantry_mp40 Spawns an Altered - spawn enemies_altered Spawns an Assassin - spawn enemies_ak_assassin Spawns SS officer with an MP43 assault rifle - spawn enemies_SS_officer Spawns SS soldier with an MP43 assault rifle - spawn enemies_SS_sentry Spawns friendly Erik Engle with an MP40 SMG - spawn allies_kreisau_erik Defeating Heavy Nazis: ---------------------- Use your Mire power to easily kill Heavy Nazis with particle cannons. Aim for the red targets on their shoulders. After both of them are destroyed, another target will appear from their back. Shoot it to kill them. All Free skills: ---------------- Collect the last Tome Of Power to get all of the skills for each power. This can save as much as $17,000 because you no longer have to purchase them. Fully upgraded weapons: ----------------------- Collect all Intel pieces to automatically fully upgrade your weapons. Fully Upgraded Weapons: ----------------------- If you collect each and every piece of Intel in the game, you will automatically be rewarded when you pick up the final piece. With what, you ask? Hows automatically upgraded weapons sound? Each weapon you didnt have enough money to upgrade fully will become fully upgraded upon picking up the final piece of Intel.
Spotlight NEW Version CheatsBook DataBase 2015
CheatBook DataBase 2015 is a freeware "cheat-code tracker" that makes hints Tricks and cheats (for PC, Walkthroughs, PSP, Sega, Wii, Playstation, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Nintendo 64, DVD, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, N-Gage, Nintendo DS, XBox, XBox 360, Gamecube, Dreamcast, Super Nintendo) easily accessible from one central location. All Cheats inside from the first CHEATBOOK january 1998 until today.
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Democrats just elected Maxine Waters to the top Democratic spot on the House Financial Services committee.
This is really an extraordinary development. "Flabbergasting" might be a more apt word. Leave aside the recent ethics investigation over whether she used her position on the committee to help a bank her husband was involved with (which ended with her chief of staff getting reprimanded). Maxine Waters reliably delivers the craziest questions and the most bizarre speeches on that committee, and tends to demonstrate a stunning lack of grasp of the committee's core subject matter.
The classic of the her oeuvre is, of course, the committee hearing on the financial crisis, in which eight heads of major financial institutions like Citi, State Street, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley were pretty ruthlessly grilled by members of Congress about how they had gotten the economy into the largest catastrophe since the Great Depression, and the greatest capital loss in history. Here is Maxine Waters, who uses her time to ask the following questions:
Did you raise your credit card interest rates or cut credit limits after you received TARP money?
Do you require people to be delinquent before you talk to them about modifying their mortgages?
(To Ken Lewis of Bank of America): Have you offshored some of your loss mitigation specialists?
Why did you pay yourself fees to accept TARP money?
The last question might arguably be relevant except that when Ken Lewis answered "I have no idea what you're talking about", it became fairly clear that Maxine Waters didn't either; she seemed unable to rephrase the question or explain further. After an awkward moment where everyone, apparently including Maxine Waters, wondered what the hell Maxine Waters was trying to say, Vikram Pandit, the head of Citibank, had to offer a guess as to what she might be asking after: the underwriting fees that the banks had paid in order to issue some of the debt that they needed to boost their capital.
This is who the Democrats think should have the senior spot on the financial committee: someone who asks the head of State Street to raise his hand if they raised the interest rates on their consumer credit card business, of which they have none. Neither, of course, does Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, or Bank of New York.
Also someone who uses part of their five precious minutes to ask Ken Lewis whether he's letting foreigners service his collections department. Someone who doesn't know the difference between the fed funds rate and the discount rate. And someone who asks questions that they don't understand when it would have taken ten minutes or less to walk through the underlying issue.
The best hope is that this is entirely symbolic, and they figure it's safe to make her the senior member as long as she won't actually be in charge of anything. But having put her in a highly visible slot, it will be very difficult to dislodge her in the event that the Democrats retake the house, and Maxine Waters is expected to actually architect new legislation concerning the financial system. And even typing those words strikes terror into my heart.


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Taliban attack Afghan courthouse, leaving 53 dead
KABUL, Afghanistan: Insurgents wearing Afghan army uniforms launched a suicide attack and stormed a courthouseWednesday in a failed bid to free Taliban inmates, killing at least 44 people, half of them shot in the basement. Nine attackers were killed.
The attack — one of the deadliest in the more than 11-year-old war — began about 8:30 a.m. when nine men wearing suicide vests drove into the capital of Farah province in western Afghanistan, evading checkpoints by using army vehicles, according to the provincial police chief. The standoff ended some eight hours later when the last gunman was killed.
Insurgents have stepped up assaults targeting the Farah provincial government in recent months as they vie for control of an area bordering Iran to the west and Helmand province to the east. Farah has become increasingly volatile as the site of a growing drug trade after military offensives in neighboring areas.
"The Taliban seem to be exploiting the opium harvest and the unpopular eradication efforts by the government to further establish their presence," Fabrizio Foschini, of the independent research groupAfghan Analysts Network, said in a recent blog.
Militants have staged high-profile complex attacks across Afghanistan in a bid to show their strength and undermine confidence in the central government.
Wednesday's assault was among the most brutal for civilians, raising fears of deteriorating security as international combat forces withdraw by the end of 2014 and hand over control to Afghan security forces.
The attack began when two assailants blew themselves up inside one of the vehicles while the others jumped out and ran toward the courthouse and prosecutor's office, provincial police chief Agha Noor Kemtoz said. Guards opened fire, killing one of the attackers, as the others engaged in a fierce gunbattle that left civil servants and government officials holed up in their offices.
Other civilians fled to the basement of the courthouse, where gunmen found them and killed 21 people, officials said.
Kemtoz said the attack aimed to free more than a dozen Taliban prisoners who were being transferred to the courthouse for trial, which had not yet started.
"Definitely the plan was to free the prisoners with this attack, but thank God, they did not succeed," he said. "All the prisoners are accounted for."
Deputy provincial governor Yonus Rasouli, however, said one of the inmates had escaped. He said the suspects had been arrested in different places and faced a range of charges, including planting roadside bombs.
Provincial Gov. Akram Akhpewak said those killed included 34 civilians, including judges and prosecutors, 10 members of the security forces and the nine attackers. Dr. Abdul Hakim Rasouli, chief of the Farah hospital, said 80 people also were wounded.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to reporters, although some witnesses questioned whether the assailants were Afghans.
Provincial lawmaker Humaira Ayobi said a recent police operation targeting the drug trade may have been a factor in the audacious attack.
It was the deadliest strike since Oct. 26, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives outside a mosque packed with senior regional officials in the northern Afghan province of Faryab, killing 41 people on a major Muslim holiday.
In Kabul, meanwhile, Afghanistan's intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid returned to Kabul on Wednesday nearly four months after he was seriously wounded by a Taliban suicide bomber posing as a messenger of peace.
Billboards in the capital welcomed home the director of the National Directorate of Security, saying he has fully recovered and "is ready to continue his duty to provide peace, security and prosperity to his homeland."


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Prince Harry receives Humanitarian Award Prince Harry Prince Harry has now joined the ranks of Bono and Bill Clinton. Harry, 27, arrived i...
Prince Harry receives Humanitarian Award
Prince Harry
Prince Harry has now joined the ranks of Bono and Bill Clinton.
Harry, 27, arrived in Washington, D.C., to receive the 2012 Distinguished Humanitarian Leadership Award from the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank, at its annual awards dinner on Monday. The U2 frontman and former president are among the awards event's past honorees.
The prince, in his first-ever visit to the U.S. capital, was recognized for his work with military veterans, servicemen and women that he does through the Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry. He accepted the award on his brother's behalf.
The award's presenter, General Colin Powell, referred to the prince's military title, Captain Harry Wales. Powell spoke of the prince's ability to bring a more youthful, female crowd to the usually staid dinner. "For that, we really, really thank you," Powell joked.
"Prince Harry has wholeheartedly continued the royal tradition of advocating on behalf of society's less-fortunate members," Powell said. "Through his efforts, he restores confidence to those who have been wounded in service to his country."
Taking the stage in the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton in a black tuxedo, Harry began his remarks by laughing and saying, "This isn't daunting at all."
"Generally, I obviously don't feel that I've done nearly enough to deserve [this award]," he said, before speaking of his work with wounded veterans. "The very least we owe them is to make sure that they and their brave families have everything they need through the darkest days – and, in time, regain the hope and confidence to flourish again."
The prince's presence was unusual even for the especially distinguished crowd inside the ballroom, but it really stirred the crowd of several dozen screaming people gathered outside.
Among the prince's many local fans was Maria Fera, 19, a student at nearby George Washington University.
"I'm going to cry if I don't see him," Fera, who had waited more than three hours, told PEOPLE. "I have to study for finals, but this is a dream for me."
Earlier Monday afternoon, Harry joined a group of 125 people, including Dr. Jill Biden, for a reception at British Ambassador Peter Westmacott's residence. Looking happy and relaxed, the prince personally greeted a group of 30 wounded soldiers, shaking hands and listening to their stories.
In honor of his visit and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Harry dug some dirt to plant a tree – fittingly, a fire-red maple called October glory.


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Tito Ortiz and Jenna Jameson: We're TERRIFIED Of Our Crazy Friend
Tito Ortiz, Jenna Jameson We're TERRIFIED OF OUR CRAZY FRIEND
UFC legend Tito Ortiz and his retired porn star fiancee Jenna Jameson rushed to court, asking a judge to protect them from a friend who is allegedly drug and alcohol fueled and has stolen from them and stalked them both.
TMZ has obtained the legal docs, in which Tito and Jenna say Shana Burroughs comes over to the house with a virtual pharmacy ... including Xanax and Oxycodone. The Oxycodone is especially problematic because Tito has said in the past that Jenna has struggled with the drug.
The couple claim Shana comes over drunk and under the influence of Rx meds and wreaks havoc -- scaring their kids, stalking them and stealing property from the house.
The docs allege Shana has been doing this for 4 years.
The emergency restraining order was just DENIED, because the judge felt the matter could wait until a full hearing could be held -- and that will happen on June 15.


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With hundreds of Arduino shields available for any imaginable application, it's a shame they can't be used with the Raspberry Pi. Breaking out the Raspi GPIO pins to Arduino-compatible headers would allow makers and tinkerers to reuse their shields with a far more capable computing platform.
The folks over at Cooking Hacks realized a Raspi to Arduino shield bridge would be an awesome device, so they made their own, complete with a software library that allows you to port your Arduino code directly to the Raspberry Pi.
There are a few limitations with the Raspberry Pi's GPIO headers; the Raspi doesn't have analog inputs, so the Cooking Hacks team added an 8-channel ADC. Along with analog inputs and the headers required to pop a shield on the board, there's also a socket for an XBee module.
The software library contains most of the general Arduino functions such as digitalWrite() and digitalRead(). There Serial, Wire, and SPI libraries are also implemented, allowing any device that communicates through UART, I2C, or SPI to talk directly to the Raspberry Pi.
While the Raspi Arduino bridge doesn't allow for PWM in the same capacity as an Arduino, you're always welcome to whip up a servo or LED shield for this neat little adapter.


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The Kansas Highway Patrol says a school bus driver's medical condition directly impacted the cause of a crash that injured the driver and 22 middle school students.
The Kansas City Star reports the Aug. 21 accident outside Bonner Springs injured the driver and 22 sixth-grade girls from the Pembroke Hill School in Kansas City. The injuries included broken collar bones and concussions.
The patrol investigation says video shows the 66-year-old driver's hands weren't on the steering wheel and his head was dropped down as the bus took a highway exit curve too fast and overturned.
Investigators said the driver was taking medication for high blood pressure and diabetes, and his condition had a direct impact on the crash.
The report was sent to the Wyandotte County District Attorney's office.
Information from: The Kansas City Star


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Islamic Pensions Make Inroads Among Asset Managers
By Bernardo Vizcaino and Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah
SYDNEY/KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Islamic pensions are making inroads in several majority-Muslim countries, and their success may help the growth of asset management industries across much of Asia and the Middle East.
Most pension plans around the world are state-funded. But many countries are trying to develop private pension sectors as a way to deepen their financial markets, and the experience of Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia suggests Islamic finance can become a significant part of this effort.
If state-owned pensions in major Islamic markets shifted a portion of their money into sharia-compliant schemes, that could add between $160 billion and $190 billion to the sector, according to consultants Ernst & Young.
"So you've got a pent-up demand – your challenge is how to create a supply-side mechanism to cater to that latent demand,†said Ashar Nazim, Islamic financial services leader at E&Y.
Pakistan launched such a mechanism in 2005, creating a voluntary pension system (VPS) which now holds 3.4 billion rupees ($32.4 million) of Islamic assets, or 61 percent of all VPS assets.
While modest in absolute terms, Islamic pension assets account for a much larger proportion of the VPS sector than Islamic bank deposits' 10 percent share of all Pakistani bank deposits.
All seven VPS managers offer Islamic pensions and the largest, run by a unit of Meezan Bank, is triple the size of its conventional peer. Islamic assets under management have doubled in the last year.
Growth was initially stagnant until 2010, when changes in the tax regime, favourable market conditions and a wider product range boosted the sector, said Muhammad Afzal, a director at Pakistan's Securities and Exchange Commission.
"The popularity of Islamic pension funds can be attributed to demand from the general public for retirement products designed in accordance with the Islamic precepts,†said Afzal.
"This money can be retained for a very long-term basis given 70 percent of the country's population is under 35 years of age,†said Wasim Akram, fund manager at HBL Asset Management, a VPS provider and a unit of Habib Bank.
"With time, I believe that the performance of the already-launched funds will attract more and more members as the opportunities for growth are enormous.â€
Islamic fund managers screen their portfolios according to religious guidelines such as bans on tobacco, alcohol and gambling, in much the same way as socially responsible funds in Western markets.
They have an additional constraint, Islam's ban on interest payments, which confines them to sukuk in the fixed-income space – a relatively small market globally where demand has exceeded supply in many countries.
Islamic fund managers see potential, however, in countries such as Turkey, where a 2001 private pension law has been energised by government reforms introduced this year. The number of contributors to private pensions has reached 3.8 million, up from 3.1 million in December, after the Turkish state began making a 25 percent contribution to private pension premium payments and fund management charges were cut.
The vast majority of private pension assets in Turkey are conventional financial instruments. But Cuneyt Cicek, chief financial officer at Asya Emeklilik, the Islamic pension unit of Bank Asya, predicted customer preferences could help Islamic pensions reach the target of 15 percent market share by 2023 that the government has set for Islamic banks overall.
Islamic pension products reached $175 million in assets as of September, according to Turkey's Capital Markets Board. That is equivalent to about 1.5 percent of the industry.
"The asset volume and number of participants in the system are likely to grow significantly with the incentives,†said Cicek.
Asya Emeklilik is one of 17 conventional and Islamic pension firms in the Turkish system; it is the only full-fledged Islamic firm, although a few others offer sharia-compliant products.
Launched in May last year, Asya Emeklilik now has 102,043 clients and its fund size is 111.6 million lira ($55.0 million); at 1,092 lira, its average amount of assets per client is much smaller than the system's average of 6,086 lira.
However, the 17 firms will soon be joined by an Islamic venture between Al Baraka Turk and Kuveyt Turk, 62 percent owned by Kuwait Finance House, which was announced in March.
Malaysia is the most recent entrant to the private pension business, last year launching a Private Retirement Scheme (PRS) which now has 13 Islamic funds out of 36. Authorities are considering additional incentives for the industry.
"Some of the measures reviewed include a proposal for higher tax incentives or a government co-contribution for specific target markets, such as for the younger demographic,†Ranjit Singh, Securities Commission chairman, said in a June speech.
The PRS now has 30,500 account holders with total net assets – both conventional and Islamic – of 97.5 million ringgit ($29.8 million), Singh said. The Securities Commission has estimated the overall industry could grow to as much as 30.9 billion ringgit in ten years.
Growth in Islamic pensions could accelerate if governments move beyond schemes based on voluntary contributions and actively promote employer-sponsored and state-owned pension plans. Malaysia is encouraging employer engagement, with the Securities Commission contributing to the PRS of its own staff.
Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are among countries which may eventually carve out sharia-compliant tranches from their state-owned pension funds, said E&Y's Nazim. "Some of the funds are already considering this.â€
The Malaysian government plans to channel 7 billion ringgit from the state's Employees Provident Fund to Islamic fund managers.
However, a shortage of top-bracket Islamic asset management firms that could handle such inflows is a major bottleneck, Nazim said.
"The trend is positive but the size of the Islamic fund management industry is miniscule compared to the requirements of the pension industry. This is the primary challenge.†(Additional reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu in Istanbul; Editing by Andrew Torchia)


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Meditation May Help Fight Loneliness, Study Says
Researchers also looked at its effect on stress and inflammation in older adults
URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_128602.html
(*this news item will not be available after 11/22/2012)
Friday, August 24, 2012
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found that older adults who participated in an eight-week program of mindfulness-based stress reduction -- which attunes the mind to the present and avoids dwelling on the past or projecting into the future -- reported a reduced sense of loneliness on an established ratings scale. Blood tests also indicated a significant decrease in the expression of inflammation-related genes.
"I think meditation training can help [people] develop a new relationship to feelings of stress," said study co-author J. David Creswell, director of the Health and Human Performance Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon. "It puts a brake on this process ... and turns down the chronically stressed state people may be in, thereby turning down the pro-inflammatory cascade. I think it may be targeting the stress component of loneliness such that it doesn't blow itself out of proportion."
The study appeared online recently in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Previous research has linked feeling lonely to a heightened risk of heart disease, Alzheimer's, depression and premature death, and higher levels of inflammation in the body may play a role. The study authors said the new research was the first to show that a psychological intervention that decreases loneliness also cut pro-inflammatory gene expression.
Forty adults (mostly women) between the ages of 55 and 85 were randomly assigned to either a mindfulness meditation group or a control group that didn't meditate. At the beginning and end of the two-month study, all participants were assessed for their feelings of loneliness and blood levels of gene expression for inflammation markers.
The meditation group participated in weekly two-hour group sessions, a daylong retreat later in the study and 30 minutes of daily home mindfulness practice. Group sessions consisted of an instructor leading participants in guided mindfulness meditation exercises, yoga and stretching, and discussions designed to foster awareness of participants' moment-to-moment experiences.
The research provided additional clues as to how this form of meditation may affect the health of lonely older adults, the study authors said, although it did not assess whether the reduction in pro-inflammatory gene expression translated into meaningful differences on disease outcomes.
"It didn't measure inflammation directly and didn't really tell you whether their bodies are producing any more or less inflammation," said Dr. Jeremy Koppel, a geriatric psychiatrist and research scientist at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., and the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y. But, "the study is suggestive of a very interesting and novel approach to the problem of loneliness ... and broadens the potential benefit to other diseases of late life."
Copyright (c) 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
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text: Space | 24. July 2014 | posted by Elke Heinemann Closing in on Rosetta's target comet Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA A model of the comet's shape, based on the images acquired on 14 July 2014. Surface structures are becoming visible in new images of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. These images, with a resolution of 100 metres per pixel, were acquired with the OSIRIS scientific imaging system on board Rosetta. The comet's neck region – the section connecting the two heads – seems to be much brighter than the head and body of the nucleus.##markend## Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA This image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on 20 July 2014 by the OSIRIS camera system on board the Rosetta spacecraft. Images acquired recently have shown that the comet may consist of two interconnected parts: a smaller 'head' and a larger 'body'. The latest images show the neck connecting the two sections. It is particularly interesting for the scientists because it appears brighter than the rest of the comet. Possible reasons for this could be differences in the surface composition or the structure of the surface material. ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will reach the comet on 6 August 2014 and the Philae lander is scheduled to land on the comet's surface in November.


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Abuse victims wear pain on their sleeves
MIDDLEBURY — They are basic words transposed on simple cotton T-shirts, but they are strung together in such a fashion as to form powerful messages that can't be ignored.
"One year later, I still cringe when people touch me. I always thought I was one of the people who would never be raped, until it happened."
"'Home sweet home' may not always be sunshine and lollipops."
"End the silence, stop the violence."
"You took so much from me, but you couldn't take my sparkle."
The touching messages are on more than 100 colorful T-shirts form Addison County's version of the "Clothesline Project," part of a national effort to raise awareness about domestic violence. All of the T-shirts — designed by community members who have been the victims of, or witnesses to, domestic violence — will be on display throughout the month of October in the lobby of the Counseling Service of Addison County's (CSAC) office building at 109 Catamount Park. October is being recognized nationally as "Domestic Violence Awareness Month."
Joining CSAC in the Clothesline Project are officials and clients of WomenSafe, the Addison County Parent-Child Center and the United Way of Addison County.
Mindy Hammann, a service field coordinator with CSAC's Community Associates program, explained the idea to participate in the Clothesline Project sprang from participants in a women's sexuality workshop she had been co-leading. Officials from WomenSafe — a local organization that gives help to domestic abuse victims — helped give participants information about how to maintain "safe relationships" and how to seek aid if they become victims.
"The women (in the group) came up with some very empowering statements," Hammann said.
Hammann and other human services officials decided it would be a good idea to record those statements — and they saw the Clothesline Project as a great way to do it. The project dates back to 1990, when some women in Hyannis, Mass., designed and displayed 31 shirts as part of an annual "Take Back the Night" march and rally. That small effort has since mushroomed to 500 projects nationally and internationally, with an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 shirts produced by people in 41 states and five countries.
Hammann brought the idea to CSAC Human Resources Director Susan Anderson-Brown, who heartily endorsed the effort. Other agencies followed suit.
"It became an inter-agency collaborative effort," Hammann said.
Anderson-Brown was able to see the effect the relationship the workshops, held this month, had on participants.
"The workshops were moving," she said. "There were sorrowful tears and also tears of joy that people were able to move past an event or multiple events in their lives."
Robert Thorn, CSAC's executive director, also witnessed some of the workshops. He was particularly moved by the sight of a young boy who came to one of the gatherings with a caregiver. When the boy saw the T-shirts and learned the theme of the gathering, he acknowledged that he too came from an abusive home. As a result, a member of the group agreed to make a shirt on his behalf.
"He was very appreciative," Thorn recalled.
Indeed, a lot of people are connecting with the theme, according to Hammann.
"We can safely say that almost everyone has seen the effects of violence — maybe not on a personal level, but even if it is just reading about it in the newspaper, you can still be affected by this," Hammann said.
Addison County's Clothesline Project will be officially unveiled at an open house at 109 Catamount Park on Friday, Oct. 1, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. In addition to the T-shirt displays, agency representatives will be on hand with information to help those affected by domestic violence.
"We would hope the exhibit would prompt people to step forward and get help," Thorn said.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].
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[Source: Fellowship of Reconciliation]
The Pentagon signed $444 million in non-fuel contracts for purchases and services in Latin America and the Caribbean during the 2012 fiscal year, an overall decrease of nearly 15% from the previous year. But US military spending in the region is still considerably higher than during the George W. Bush administration, when the equivalent Pentagon spending in Latin America averaged $301 million a year.
FOR conducted an analysis of Defense Department contracts listed on usaspending.gov for Fiscal Year 2012, building on the review we did last year.
More than a third of funds for these contracts in the region are being carried out in Cuba, with $158 million for housing upgrades, intelligence analysis, port operations and other services. The United States maintains the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, site of the 11-year-old detention center that holds 171 prisoners without trial, many of whom have been cleared for release.
An additional $130 million in Pentagon contracts was for fuel purchases, including more than $44 million in Brazil, $35 million in Costa Rica, and $24 million in Honduras. Such fuel purchases supply the Fourth Fleet of the Navy, as well as military aircraft and land vehicles used in exercises, operations, and training.
Colombia remained the country with the largest amount of Pentagon contracts in continental Latin America, with $77 million. A multi-year contract shared by Raytheon and Lockheed for training, equipment and other drug war activities accounted for more than a third of Pentagon contract spending in Colombia. Honduras, which has become a hub for Pentagon operations in Central America, is the site for more than $43 million in non-fuel contracts signed last year.
The US Southern Command (SouthCom), responsible for US military activities in Central and South America and the Caribbean, is assisting the Panamanian border police, known as SENAFRONT, by upgrading a building in the SENAFRONT compound. The force was implicated in killings of indigenous protesters (PDF) in Bocas del Toro in 2011, and fired indiscriminately with live ammunition (PDF) on Afro-Caribbean protesters last October.
Many countries that host US military activities hope to receive economic benefits and jobs as a result. But more than five of every six Pentagon dollars contracted for services and goods in the region went to US-based companies. Only nine percent of the $574.4 million in Pentagon contracts signed in 2012 (including fuel contracts) were with firms in the country where the work was to be carried out. In the Caribbean, there were virtually no local companies that benefitted from the $245 million in Defense Department contracts.
A few corporations dominated Pentagon contracts in the region. CSC Applied Technologies, based in Fort Worth, Texas, received more than $53 million in contracts to operate the Navy's underwater military testing facility in the Bahamas. Lockheed Martin received more than $40 million in contracts, almost entirely for drug war training, equipment and services in Colombia and Mexico.
Pentagon Focus on Guatemala
Although the Pentagon spent less in most Latin American countries in 2012 than the year before, DOD contracts have more than doubled since 2010 in Guatemala, where there is a ban on most State Department-channeled military aid to the army. However, the ban does not apply to Defense Department assistance. The contracts for nearly $14 million in 2012 amount to more than seven times what it was in 2009. In addition, the US military spent another $8.1 million on fuel in Guatemala last year, probably for "Beyond the Horizon" military exercises held there and in Honduras from April to July, and perhaps to support the deployment of 200 Marines to Guatemala in August.
The contracts included new assistance to the Guatemalan special forces, known as Kaibiles, former members of which have been implicated in giving training to the Zetas drug cartel, as well as the worst atrocities during the genocide period of the 1980s. Two contracts, funded by SouthCom and signed in September, were for a "shoot house" and "improvements" at the Kaibiles training base in Poptun, Petén.
SouthCom also funded a contract for construction of a new $3 million counter-drug base in Santa Ana de Berlin, in Quetzaltenango. This year, SouthCom is slated to build a $1.8 million counternarcotics operations center and barracks in Mantanitas, Guatemala, according to an Army Corps of Engineers presentation.
The expenditures included equipment. For the last two years, SouthCom has been providing Boston whaler boats, radios, and tactical vehicles (Jeeps) to Central American militaries. Guatemala is receiving more of the equipment than other countries in the region – 47 Jeeps and 8 Boston whalers, according to a SouthCom document. SouthCom signed a $2.5 million contract in September for Jeeps for Guatemala, and it has purchased more than $2.8 million of Harris military radios for Guatemala since September 2011.
Department of Defense contracts, summaries of which are posted on usaspending.gov, only represent a portion of Pentagon spending. A report to Congress last April (PDF) of Defense Department assistance worldwide showed more than $15 million in military aid to Guatemala in 2010, including $9 million for intelligence analysis, training, boats, trucks, night vision devices, and a "base of operations." These funds also included more than $6 million of unspecified support for Guatemalan police operations in Cobán, in the Guatemalan highland department of Alta Verapaz. The report didn't include data after 2010.
On December 7, the Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency signed a $1.4 million contract with a Guatemalan firm to manage a 10,000-barrel supply of turbine fuel for the next five years in Puerto Quetzal, on Guatemala's southern coast. This followed a July 2012 solicitation to deliver 63,000 gallons of jet fuel to another southern Guatemalan site, in Retalhuleu.
FOR compiled data on the "country of performance" for contracts. For Guatemala, we also examined data on additional contracts that reference the country, which included a $2.5 million contract signed in late September with a Chrysler distributor to deliver tactical vehicles – some of the Jeeps slated for the country. The US Army also purchased $7.6 million worth of trousers from a producer in Guatemala in 2012.
Some legislation for DOD drug war construction of bases and other infrastructure limits projects to $2 million, and the Southern Command continues to employ this authority frequently to construct a variety of facilities all over the Americas. Here are some of the facilities the US military is constructing around Latin America.
City, Country | Amount of contract | Date signed | Description |
Tecun Uman, Guatemala | $550K | Dec. 5, 2011 | Health post refurbishment |
Champerico, Guatemala | none — part of multi-award contract | Sept 17, 2012 | Counter Narco-terrorism (CNT) Ops Center; pier and fuel |
Santa Ana de Berlin, Guatemala | $3 million (Army Corps of Engineers says $4.1 million) | Sept 29, 2012 | CNT Barracks, Latrines, refurbish chow hall, motorpool |
Las Mantanitas, Guatemala | $1.8 million | Not known; see ACE FY13 plan. | CN Operations Center/Barracks |
Summit, Panama | $1,078,971 | Sept 22, 2012 | Counternarcotics maintenance facility |
Hunting Caye, Belize | $1,778,420 | August 10, 2012 | Construction of operations barracks/maintenance facility |
Puerto Castilla, Honduras | $374,882 | March 9, 2012 | Construction of helicopter landing pads and team room improvements |
Dominican Republic | $1.8 million | Sept 28, 2012 | Construct dormitory building |
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | $414,444 | Jan. 24 and March 8, 2012 | Refurbish peace keeping operations training school buildings |
Antigua | none — supplemental to existing contract | October 19, 2011 | Emergency response warehouse |
Tarapoto, Peru | $1,049,265 | September 12, 2012 | Disaster relief warehouse and search and rescue training facility |
Puno and Huaraz, Peru | $1,037,808 | July 27, 2012 | Emergency Operations Centers |
Piura and Concepción, Peru | $853,500 | July 27, 2012 | Emergency Operation Center and Disaster Relief Warehouse |


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As a young boy, I was horrified by the reports and images of the vicious conflict of apartheid. The scenes were jarringly foreign to my peaceful upbringing in rural North America.
The struggle in South Africa reflected a running global battle between proponents of self-governance and democracy and totalitarians and communists. I followed with deep interest and passion the worldwide human struggle for liberty and justice but never imagined I would have a brief encounter with one of history's great leaders years later.
This week the world lauds the legacy of Nelson Mandela. Among the many reasons for honoring him must be that we have so few accounts of peaceful transfer of power. Most of history's pages drip with the blood of brutal combat, both between traditional powers and amid wrenching revolutionary uprisings. Africa's own chronicle of conflict includes tribal warfare, enslavement, colonial rule and overthrow, resource rivalries and religious warfare. Most predicted that the overthrow of apartheid would involve terrible human cost.
Enter Nelson Mandela, a Xhosa boy moved by the suffering and injustice in his society. As a young man with unique gifts, he sought a voice amid an insurgency, leading to 27 years of imprisonment. Yet instead of leading his land in armed warfare, he emerged as a type of real-life Jean Valjean. He emerged as a man of reason, reconciliation and mercy, destined to lead his country and his people to a new era of freedom and peace few imagined.
Historians and detractors are quick to point out flaws in any person of great accomplishment. Alas, finding errors in any human is no great task nor great intellectual accomplishment. Indeed, the historical record shows Mandela made many mistakes.
However, with a brief personal experience Nelson Mandela cemented in my soul the greatness of his.
While a graduate student at Harvard in September 1998, I learned Mandela would be coming to the university to be the 74th recipient of an honorary degree. Other awardees from history included Benjamin Franklin, Alexis de Tocqueville, Mother Teresa and Benazir Bhutto. But he was to receive his doctor of laws in a special convocation, joining George Washington and Winston Churchill and 10 others in a separate ceremony from the traditional commencement exercises.
Before making my way to the green that September day, I had read much of Mandela's writings and the history surrounding his "long walk to freedom." I awaited with anticipation, along with thousands of others, finding it remarkable to be there at that moment, far from the rolling hills of my Idaho home. In no way did I expect what happened next.
When Mandela strode onto the stage, I recall him first greeting invited guests, university leaders and dignitaries. Then he turned, smiled and waved, and a powerful feeling washed over me. I can only describe it as a presence of great virtue. It was as though I felt a wave of goodness rush past me. I recall being shocked by the experience.
After some singing and introduction, Mandela stood and spoke. Among the many things he said that day, he humbly explained, "I know that through this award you are not so much recognizing any individual achievement, but are rather paying tribute to the struggles and achievements of the South African people as a whole."
He went on to say, "If in these latter years of a life lived in pursuit of equality, we can at last look upon our own country as one in which citizens, regardless of race, gender or creed, share equal political rights and opportunities for development, we do so with great gratitude towards the millions upon millions all around the world who materially and morally supported our struggle for freedom and justice."
It is my belief that all human beings possess a soul and that we have the ability to touch one another in ways beyond the tangible. I also believe in a divine creator who has our best interests at heart and sustains our noblest aims, among which is the innate human striving for liberty. I furthermore believe that as we choose goodness over evil, our individual ability to influence others for good grows.
In my youth I was pained by the struggle of Mandela's people, half a world away. But on a fall day in Harvard Yard, his soul touched mine — no doubt through the virtue of a life of choosing good over evil. I left inspired to be better.
So in all the sincerity of my soul I say thank you to Mandiba, the great man.
Matthew studied economics at Brigham Young University and business and government at Harvard University. He workes for Deseret Digital Media as GM of Publisher Solutions. email@example.com or @Sanders_Matt


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I understand the syntax of HLSL, for example let's pretend I have this as my HLSL:
struct VOut
float4 position : SV_POSITION;
float4 color : COLOR;
VOut VShader(float4 position : POSITION, float4 color : COLOR)
VOut output;
output.position = position;
output.position.xy *= 0.7f; // "shrink" the vertex on the x and y axes
output.color = color;
return output;
float4 PShader(float4 position : SV_POSITION, float4 color : COLOR) : SV_TARGET
return color;
and I compile it like this:
D3DX11CompileFromFile(L"shaders.hlsl", 0, 0, "VShader", "vs_5_0", 0, 0, 0, &VS, 0, 0);
D3DX11CompileFromFile(L"shaders.hlsl", 0, 0, "PShader", "ps_5_0", 0, 0, 0, &PS, 0, 0);
How does it like... know to change... I'm confused about exactly what the pipeline between HLSL and the actual pixels/vertices on the screen is.
Is this what actually "applies" them?
dev->CreateVertexShader(VS->GetBufferPointer(), VS->GetBufferSize(), NULL, &pVS);
dev->CreatePixelShader(PS->GetBufferPointer(), PS->GetBufferSize(), NULL, &pPS);
// set the shader objects
devcon->VSSetShader(pVS, 0, 0);
devcon->PSSetShader(pPS, 0, 0);
Keep in mind I'm like a literal beginner at this stuff. Can someone maybe explain what it's doing? I'm assuming the vertex HLSL function goes through every vertex and then changes them to whatever I have in the function, and the output is what was changed... and similarly for the pixel shader?
Another confusion, I know what a pixel is, and I understand what a vertex is... but what exactly does the pixel shader do?


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02/08/11 Companies Illegally Euthanize Dogs and Collect Local Government Compensations
Relative to its query sent to all the Croatian counties regarding the enforcement of the Animal Protection Act, Animal Friends received in January a written reply from the Medjimurje County Prefect's Office and the Environment Protection and Municipal Services Department.
The said reply shows that in 2009 and 2010 the companies "Bioinstitut" from Cakovec and "Veterinary Station Prelog" from Prelog were contracted to collect and provide care for animals, even though they lacked the required permit from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, and despite failing to meet the criteria and the conditions prescribed by the Animal Shelter Regulations.
According to the data at our disposal, there is a reasonable suspicion that the aforementioned institutions have obtained illegal profits by signing contracts for collecting and providing care for abandoned animals, in spite of not being registered for such activities. Furthermore, they put dogs to death against the Law, without meeting all the requirements for that activity; they euthanize dogs at their owners' request, which is also against the Law; they do not keep all the required records, thereby committing numerous misdemeanours punishable by the Animal Protection Act and also the felony of fraud with the intent of obtaining illegal profits, punishable by the Penal Code.
As the data from the report issued by Medjimurje County show, in 2009 the aforementioned institutions collected 259 animals, 190 of which were collected by "Bioinstitut" from Cakovec, and 69 by "Veterinary Station Prelog." The latter also removed three dogs from the area belonging to the Dubrava Hydroelectric Power Plant and euthanized 29 dogs at their owners' requests. The total funds paid by the local authorities to the aforementioned institutions in 2009 amounted to 99,576.00 kuna.
Seeing that the aforementioned institutions lack an animal shelter, there is a reasonable suspicion that the animals collected were euthanized immediately or soon after being caught. The Animal Protection Act prohibits killing abandoned animals, unless the legal requirements for such an action are met. It is also forbidden to put a healthy animal to death at its owner's request.
Animal Friends hereby reiterates its appeal to the local authorities to responsibly enforce the Animal Protection Act regarding the care of abandoned animals and to entrust such care exclusively to the institutions in possession of relevant permits from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, allowing them to operate a shelter for abandoned animals, as this is the fundamental prerequisite for the involvement in animal care.
Animal Friends and the Network Against Animal Abandoning support the enforcement of the Animal Protection Act and the setting up of abandoned animals shelters which will not kill the animals, but instead implement the programs for caring, castrating, housing and education.


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(AP) Cities across the West have mandated water restrictions or asked residents to voluntarily cut back on water use to avoid shortages. Some restrictions take effect automatically each year, while others depend on the forecast and the amount of precipitation the region has received. Much of the West is in some stage of drought, ranging from abnormal to exceptional. Here's a look at some of the water-saving measures in effect across the region:
The southeastern Arizona city of Safford has been under strict water restrictions since February 2013, with the aim of reducing usage by 30 percent. Residents cannot refill swimming pools or spas, plant new grass or install sod. Watering outdoors is limited to twice weekly. Water at restaurants comes upon request only. Williams, a gateway city to the Grand Canyon, imposed its most severe water restrictions earlier this year. They prohibit outdoor watering and washing cars with potable water. The city also stopped issuing building permits for new development because water is scarce. The town of Payson has set a goal for each resident to use no more than 89 gallons of water per day.
In January, Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency. In Sacramento, residents are required to use 20 percent less water, with officials beefing up conservation efforts and limiting outdoor watering, according to the Association of California Water Agencies. Residents of Visalia in the Central Valley are on a schedule for watering outdoors and washing their cars. In Northern California, Willits residents are limited to 150 gallons of water per day as leaders scramble to find money for water. The Los Angeles County Water District asks customers to use 20 percent less water by turning off the faucet while shaving or brushing their teeth, along with taking shorter showers and using a broom rather than a hose to clean their patios and sidewalks.
Santa Fe residents are limited to three days a week in which they can water outdoors during certain hours, and once per month for washing each vehicle at home. Permits are required to install new irrigation systems. Violators can be fined up to $200. Restrictions in Carlsbad and other communities prevent residents from watering their lawns and require that restaurants provide customers with glasses of water upon request only.
Southern Nevada residents can be fined or issued a citation if their sprinkler irrigation systems run outside assigned days. No new turf is allowed in front yards in Las Vegas, and the size of backyard lawns is limited. The Southern Nevada Water Authority pays residents $1.50 per square foot to remove their grass. Golf courses are subject to water budgets. In Reno, lawn watering is barred on Mondays. Businesses and residents are on a schedule during the rest of the week for outdoor watering. The Truckee Meadows Water Authority estimates water use increases up to tenfold during the summer. The authority says assigned days for outdoor watering help level off peak days.
The list of public utilities limiting water use to avoid shortages has grown to include hundreds of communities. In far western Texas, El Paso is reusing treated wastewater, and the city has invested in a major desalination plant for turning salty, unusable groundwater into a drinking-water source. Outdoor watering is prohibited on Mondays.
Limits on outdoor watering during the hottest times of the day have been in place for several years says Karry Rathje, spokeswoman for Washington County Water Conservancy District in southern Utah. Farmers and ranchers in southern Utah will need to scale back summertime water use, said Sterling Brown of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation. It's too early to say if formal restrictions will be put in place, he said. Northern Utah's water supply is plentiful thanks to a flurry of late-spring snow and rain.


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Eric is finishing the last large attic gable on our 1900 Arts & Crafts home. It's been a multi-year project, starting when we bought the house 3 years ago on foreclosure. It was covered with vines, the roof was losing shingles, and the soffits were rotted out.
Once we had the roof & soffits rebuilt, we had to choose four paint colors and then repaint all the woodwork. The house is mostly brick (1st story) & cement-over-brick (2nd story), but there is still a huge amount of woodwork between the windows, soffits, porch ceiling, and 3rd story gables.
It's finally coming together, thanks especially to our friend who lent us his Condor manlift. (Why not womanlift? personlift?) Eric is the delegated scraper/painter, and he gives the lift two thumbs up. It took him 5 days to do the side gable (working some half days) and 3 1/2 days to do the front gable. He started on the back side today, so we should be done next week.
Before the lift arrived, Eric had finished painting the porch & 2nd story soffits with just an extension ladder. He was tired of hauling ladders around--and hauling himself and paint/tools/hoses/etc up and down.
I've been busy getting our rental properties fixed up (a 3-plex and a 5-plex), taking a few former tenants to court for thousands of dollars of back rent & damages, and repairing the four exterior French doors on our house. All four doors were rotted out on the bottoms.
Thanks to products from the wood restoration company Abatron (LiquidWood + WoodEpox), I was able to completely restore the doors. 5 of the windows were broken, so I've been smashing them with a hammer (fun!) and reglazing almost all of the 40 windows.
We need a vacation from being on "vacation"!


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This article is more than 1 year old
Schools chief pushes Big Brother out of dinner line
Gov purees fingerprints for food policy
The government has told head teachers to lighten up after one British school told children in the dinner queue that if they didn't give their fingerprints they wouldn't get any food.
The Department for Education and Skills said this week in a statement to the BBC Radio 4 Programme You and Yours that schools who refused school dinners to kids who won't scan their fingerprints might be in breach of the law, contrasting with the long-overdue guidance note it issued on school fingerprinting in the summer.
This draconian application of fingerprint technology at Morley High School, Leeds, had forced one parent to make her child packed lunches, since the school provided no alternative way for children to get their dinner.
John Townsley, head teacher of Morley High School, told You and Yours: "We have given parents an opt out. The opt out is that you don't have to have anything to do with the system whatsoever and that you then have the responsibility as a mum, dad or carer to provide a very healthy alternative to your child."
But the DfES said: "Schools have a legal duty to provide meals for pupils who want them. So telling concerned parents to provide pack lunches if they were unwilling to sign up to the fingerprint system, as Morley High was doing, might amount to a breach of the Education Act 2002."
However, the DfES said when it released the guidance in July that it supported schools' "freedom to run their own affairs", including whether they offered the children of dissenting parents an alternative way of getting their school dinners.